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Gerstein: New implications in Petraeus, Broadwell scandal

Allen nomination on hold

In 2010, Obama fired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal following the publication of a magazine profile in which McChrystal and his camp appeared to mock senior officials in the government.

On Friday, CIA Director David Petraeus — who succeeded McChrystal as the top commander in Kabul and was still intimately involved in the campaign against Al Qaeda as the nation’s top spy — resigned after acknowledging an extramarital affair with a woman he met during his time on active duty.

And on Tuesday, defense officials revealed that the FBI investigation into Petraeus’s connection with two other women had cast a shadow over the current U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen.

The war’s incoming commander, Assistant Marine Commandant Gen. Joe Dunford, was already under a lot of pressure — as Obama’s nominee to replace Allen before Tuesday’s revelations, he was always going to face a tough job as the man charged with completing the “transition” there by 2014. But this week’s Petraeus-Allen scandal only turns the volume up higher.

Dunford, a highly respected senior four-star who now serves as the Marine Corps's no. 2 leader, is a career infantryman and the latest Marine general officer to step up into a critical role in the Obama administration. Although the Marine Corps is the smallest of the Defense Department’s military services and has the fewest four-star generals, it has punched above its weight in recent years, with Allen in command of Afghanistan; Gen. James Mattis in charge of Central Command; and Gen. James Cartwright serving until last year as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Dunford is set to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee by himself on Thursday for the hearing about whether to confirm him to replace Allen. Originally Allen was supposed to appear as well, but Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday he had asked Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) the committee chairman, to postpone Allen’s appearance amid the Pentagon’s investigation.

Defense officials acknowledged Allen exchanged “flirtatious” emails with Jill Kelley, a MacDill AFB socialite who complained about harassing emails the FBI discovered were from Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer that investigators learned had an extramarital affair with Petraeus.

Military sources in the Pentagon told POLITICO they were shocked by the allegations about Allen, and senior aides began to speak up on Tuesday morning to defend him. Panetta himself also defended Allen — he chose to keep him on duty as the commander of the International Security Assistance Force, as opposed to suspending him — and called for waiting until all the facts are in.

“While the matter is under investigation and before the facts are determined, Gen. Allen will remain commander of ISAF,” Panetta said in a statement. “His leadership has been instrumental in achieving the significant progress that ISAF, working alongside our Afghan partners, has made in bringing greater security to the Afghan people and in ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists. He is entitled to due process in this matter.”